Christmas in a Day, the film used by Sainsbury’s in its Christmas ad campaign, has been viewed over 840,000 times since its release on YouTube just over a week ago.

The 45-minute film, directed by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald, was created using 400 hours of real footage submitted by people celebrating Christmas in the UK in 2012.

Sainsbury’s started running trailers (above) as the cornerstone of its Christmas campaign from 13 November and the full film was released on YouTube on 29 November.

At time of writing, Christmas in a Day had been viewed nearly 842,000 times and had generated comments from 750 viewers.

The ads have attracted celebrity interest, with Tom Fletcher from McFly tweeting: “Absolutely incredible! Sat in a hotel room crying Christmassy…” And Cheryl Cole tweeted: “Anyone else feel choked up watching Sainsbury’s #Christmasinaday advert?”

It has also had a positive reception from critics, with The Grocer’s panel of industry experts last month crowning it the best ad offering of the major supermarkets.

Topics